Johnny Mad Dog

Running time: 97 mins

Winner ? Prize of Hope, Cannes Film Festival

There is a hell, a hell on earth, and it?s a place once known as paradise.

Johnny Mad Dog, No Good Advice, Chicken Hair. Child soldiers of Liberia?s civil war. Charged with overtaking the capital to unseat the government, 15-year old Johnny leads his outrageously clad ?troops? as they cut a bloody swath through whatever appears in front of them, operating at a level of violence and adrenaline almost impossible to conceive. Nearby, studious young Laokolé, lives with her little brother and disabled father, dreaming of a better life?until she finds herself in the path of Johnny?s hurricane of destruction.

Featuring actual ex-child-soldiers, writer-director Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire?s hyper-stylish film is an almost surreal, visionary work featuring amped-up sound, tight shots and kinetic editing. Terrifying and emotionally overwhelming, it hurls the viewer into the midst of this cadre of truly lost children and forces us to confront their horrifying reality in one of the most visceral films of recent times.

--Charlie Cockey